LONDON: Iran is holding five British sailors after stopping their racing yacht in the Persian Gulf, the British government said on Monday. The move could heighten tensions between Iran and major world powers, including Britain, that are demanding a halt to its nuclear programme.

Oil prices spiked two per cent to $77.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the news broke before settling slightly at $77.28.

The yacht owned by Sail Bahrain was stopped on its way from the tiny island country to the Gulf city of Dubai on Wednesday when it “may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters,” Britain’s Foreign Office said. Sail Bahrain’s Web site identified the yacht as the “Kingdom of Bahrain” and said it had been due to join the 580-km Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race, which was to begin on November 26. The event was to be the boat’s first offshore race, the Web site said, adding that the vessel had been fitted with a satellite tracker.

Attempts to reach representatives of the raceboat’s owner were not immediately successful.

Richard Schofield, an expert on international boundaries in the Middle East at King’s College in London, said it was difficult to understand how the boat could have ended up in trouble with Iranian authorities.

“It’s hard to see why, on a regular journey from Bahrain to Dubai, they would have gone through Iranian territorial waters,” he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that British officials had been in touch about the matter with their Iranian counterparts for nearly a week. It was not immediately clear why British officials had decided to publicise the case now.

“I hope this issue will soon be resolved,” Miliband said in the brief statement. The statement added that the crew members “are still in Iran” and were “understood to be safe” but did not specify where they were and what their legal status was.